---
title: 'Sichuan Meat Sauce Noodles (Zajiang Mian)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=3AjHGc68yz8'
video_id: '3AjHGc68yz8'
date: 2026-07-29
duration_sec: 469
---

# Sichuan Meat Sauce Noodles (Zajiang Mian)

> Source: [Sichuan Meat Sauce Noodles (Zajiang Mian)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3AjHGc68yz8)

## Summary

This video teaches how to make authentic Sichuan-style Zajiang Mian (meat sauce noodles), highlighting the unique 'Za Jiang' sauce made from Pixian doubanjiang and sweet bean paste. The presenter explains the difference between Beijing Zha Jiang and Sichuan Za Jiang, and demonstrates both mixed (ganban) and soup noodle preparations.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to Zha Jiang Styles** [00:00] — There are Beijing, Korean, Cantonese, and Sichuan styles. Today focuses on Sichuan Za Jiang.
- **Za Jiang as a Versatile Saozi** [00:31] — Sichuan Za Jiang is a noodle topping called Saozi, used in dishes like red braised beef noodle soup and Dandan noodles.
- **Character Difference: Zha vs Za** [01:12] — Beijing 'zha' means fry; Sichuan 'za' means miscellaneous, reflecting a combination of sauces.
- **Key Fermented Sauces** [01:39] — Pixian doubanjiang (chili bean paste) and Tianmianjiang (sweet bean paste) are essential. Mince doubanjiang to avoid broad bean chunks.
- **Substitute for Tianmianjiang** [02:10] — Northern sweet bean paste differs; Cantonese Minsi (ground bean sauce) is a closer substitute.
- **Rendering Lard for Sauce** [03:48] — Render lard from fatty pork until lightly brown and tender, not crisp – called 'Gan Xiang You Ren'.
- **Sauce Addition Technique** [04:01] — Mix some rendered lard into the sauces first to prevent scorching and ensure even mixing.
- **Base Seasoning for Mixed Noodles** [05:26] — Includes garlic water, dark vinegar, Sichuan chili oil, Sichuan peppercorn powder, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, MSG, and stock or water.

### Conclusion

Sichuan Za Jiang Mian is a versatile and flavorful noodle dish that can be served mixed or in soup, with a complex meat sauce that also pairs well with rice. Master the sauce and customize with your preferred noodle style.

## Transcript

There's Beijing style Zha Jiang, Korean style&nbsp; Zha Jiang [Jajang], Cantonese style Zha Jiang&nbsp;&nbsp; [Zaa Zoeng], and today I'm going to show you the&nbsp; Sichuan style Za Jiang. Notice though that it's&nbsp;&nbsp; ‘za’ instead of ‘zha’… but I'll get to that in&nbsp; a sec. Unlike Beijing Zha Jiang or Korean jajang&nbsp;&nbsp;
though, Sichuan Za Jiang is less of a specific&nbsp; noodle dish, but more of a general noodle topping&nbsp;&nbsp; called Saozi. If you ever had a Sichuan style red&nbsp; braised beef noodle soup, the beef there, it's a&nbsp;&nbsp;
Saozi. The minced pork on top of a Dandan? Also&nbsp; a Saozi. And that's basically the same idea with&nbsp;&nbsp; our meat sauce here today. It is a star for one&nbsp; specific noodle dish, the Chongqing Wanzamian, but&nbsp;&nbsp;
it can also top various noodle shapes, it can&nbsp; be a mixed noodle, it can be a soup noodle...&nbsp;&nbsp; Sichuan Zajiang is just very versatile. Now&nbsp; the basic way you make a Zajiang is a lot like&nbsp;&nbsp;
Beijing or Cantonese style. You render out some&nbsp; lard from fatty pork and then you fry the sauces&nbsp;&nbsp; in it. But notice the difference in character&nbsp; here. For Beijing it's zha jiang – ‘zha’ means&nbsp;&nbsp;
‘fry’ and basically you are frying the sauce in&nbsp; the render out our lard and that's the essence&nbsp;&nbsp; there. However, in Sichuan and Southwest Mandarin&nbsp; in general, it's “Za Jiang”, or “miscellaneous&nbsp;&nbsp;
sauce”. Why that is, we'll have to leave it to&nbsp; the historical linguists. We cannot find anything&nbsp;&nbsp; conclusive here. However, “Za” does kind of tell&nbsp; the essence of the Sichuan style style zajiang&nbsp;&nbsp;
because it is a heavy combination of two local&nbsp; fermented sauces, chili bean paste and Sichuan&nbsp;&nbsp; style sweet bean paste. Now, chili bean paste –&nbsp; Pixian Doubanjiang – needs no introduction. It's a&nbsp;&nbsp;
classic in a lot of Sichuan dishes. So, just make&nbsp; sure that you mince your chili bean paste well so&nbsp;&nbsp; that you don't have big chunks of broad beans&nbsp; floating around in your sauce. The second one,&nbsp;&nbsp; Sichuan style sweet bean paste, Tianmianjiang,&nbsp; has a couple considerations though. Annoyingly,&nbsp;&nbsp;
the northern style sweet bean paste, which&nbsp; is the one that's usually available abroad,&nbsp;&nbsp; tastes quite different from the Sichuan one,&nbsp; and it's not a direct substitute here. Much&nbsp;&nbsp; closer to what the Sichuan one tastes like in our&nbsp; experience, it's the Cantonese Minsi, ground bean&nbsp;&nbsp;
sauce. You can use it here in this application&nbsp; or you can try our convoluted substitute here for&nbsp;&nbsp; those truly obsessives or you can just directly&nbsp; buy a pack from Weee or Mala market. It's a nice&nbsp;&nbsp;
ingredient. So with the sauces in place, we can&nbsp; fry up our Za Jiang. To do so, first drizzle in&nbsp;&nbsp; a tablespoon of oil and then go in with 500g of&nbsp; ground fatty pork. It will be best if you can&nbsp;&nbsp;
use a coarser grind because coarser and slightly&nbsp; bigger chunks can help you get a smoother and more&nbsp;&nbsp; tender final sauce texture. But in a pinch, you&nbsp; can also use the fattiest ground pork that you can&nbsp;&nbsp;
find. Then over a medium flame, slowly render out&nbsp; our lard, which does take a little bit of time,&nbsp;&nbsp; and we can think of it as three stages. First,&nbsp; fry it until it starts to get loose and flow off&nbsp;&nbsp;
your spatula, which takes a couple minutes.&nbsp; After that time, it will start to reach its&nbsp;&nbsp; annoyingly-sticking-to-the-wok stage. When that&nbsp; happens, just patiently scrape off anything&nbsp;&nbsp;
that's sticking, and you can add a little extra&nbsp; oil if you need. After about 5 minutes or so,&nbsp;&nbsp; the pork will begin to release as lard and fry.&nbsp; And in this stage, what you will be looking for is&nbsp;&nbsp;
something like this: lightly brown but not crisp,&nbsp; [you don’t want it to] get hard… and as they call&nbsp;&nbsp; it in Sichuan, “Gan Xiang You Ren”. Now a good&nbsp; technique for adding sauces into the Za Jiang,&nbsp;&nbsp;
especially for the Sichuan version, will be&nbsp; adding some lard into the sauce and mix well&nbsp;&nbsp; first. This way, it can help the sauce mix&nbsp; more evenly as well as prevent scorching.&nbsp;&nbsp;
So now fry it for about a minute to tint our oil&nbsp; red first… then add in our tianmianjiang. Fry all&nbsp;&nbsp; together for another 2 minutes or so… Then we can&nbsp; add in half cup of stock. Let it simmer together&nbsp;&nbsp;
for about 3 minutes. Then add in the seasoning&nbsp; of 1/4 teaspoon salt plus half teaspoon each MSG,&nbsp;&nbsp; white pepper, and sugar. Mix well. Then&nbsp; add in 1 tbsp liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Let it simmer for a minute and then we can&nbsp; thicken. Just slowly drizzle in a slurry of one&nbsp;&nbsp; tablespoon potato starch and two tablespoons water&nbsp; bit by bit. Let it come together to a consistency&nbsp;&nbsp;
a bit like this. Then reserve it in a bowl. Now&nbsp; let's make the noodles. And again in Sichuan&nbsp;&nbsp; there are usually two ways that you will see Za&nbsp; Jiang Mian – ‘ganban’ [mixed] or a soup noodle.&nbsp;&nbsp; Either way you want, it will be most delicious if&nbsp; you have some stock handy. But for the dry mixed&nbsp;&nbsp;
ganban version, the stock is optional. So to make&nbsp; the mixed version, we'll put the base seasoning&nbsp;&nbsp; into the noodle serving bowl first, which is one&nbsp; teaspoon garlic water, half teaspoon Chinese dark&nbsp;&nbsp;
vinegar, half tablespoon Sichuan chili oil,&nbsp; 1/4 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn powder, 1/4&nbsp;&nbsp; teaspoon toasted sesame oil, half tablespoon soy&nbsp; sauce, 1/8 teaspoon each salt and MSG, and 1/4 cup&nbsp;&nbsp;
stock or water. Then boil 60 gram dry noodles per&nbsp; serving together with a couple pieces of baby bok&nbsp;&nbsp; choy. When they're done to your liking, place it&nbsp; neatly into the noodle serving bowl. And finally,&nbsp;&nbsp;
top it with two to three tablespoons of your Za&nbsp; Jiang, a bit of scallion, and cilantro. And that's&nbsp;&nbsp; that. For the soup noodle, the base seasoning&nbsp; is the same, but the stock is mandatory. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp;
at noodle shops, they will usually have a simple&nbsp; pork bone stock handy, and we show you how to make&nbsp;&nbsp; one way back in our red braised beef noodle soup&nbsp; video. And we'll also leave you a simple recipe in&nbsp;&nbsp;
the description. But for me today, I'm going to&nbsp; use our personal concentrated frozen stock from&nbsp;&nbsp; our cool little ice cube bags and add some hot&nbsp; water to it and make a very nice quick stock.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Then, same as the mixed noodle, put all the&nbsp; seasoning into the serving bowl first and&nbsp;&nbsp; then add in the stock. And next, cook the same&nbsp; 60g dry noodle per portion, plus some baby bok&nbsp;&nbsp;
choy. Carefully place the noodles and veg into the&nbsp; soup. And top it off with a couple tablespoons of&nbsp;&nbsp; our delicious Sichuan Za Jiang. And there you&nbsp; have it, Sichuan Za Jiang Mian, mixed or soup,&nbsp;&nbsp;
however you like it. Right. This is how you&nbsp; make Sichuan style Za Jiang… and this jiang,&nbsp;&nbsp; it's probably my personal favorite because it&nbsp; has a very nice and complex flavor and it's&nbsp;&nbsp;
really versatile. It's just so good even just&nbsp; on some leftover white rice. And as promised,&nbsp;&nbsp; in a couple days, Chris will show you how&nbsp; to make a weirder version of Zha Jiang. So&nbsp;&nbsp;
stay tuned. And in the meantime, recipe’s&nbsp; in description box. A big thank you for&nbsp;&nbsp; everyone that's supporting us on Patreon and&nbsp; subscribe for more upcoming weird sauce videos.